Category Archives: Insight

I want a young man with a good income

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Ok, I personally don’t.

What I mean is that many companies want to—and have always wanted to—reach relatively affluent young men. It’s the golden demographic. Guys with disposable income that they readily spend on beer, gadgets, and shower gel that they hope will have hordes of women chasing them down the street like something out of A Hard Day’s Night.

(Maybe that isn’t the best example. These young guys probably don’t understand the phenomenon of women chasing Ringo down the street…On second thought, do any of us understand women chasing Ringo down the street?)

And where do you find all of these guys? In front of their computers on that productivity-killing Thursday and Friday in March, watching basketball. Pretending to work.

It’s likely that as viewing continues to move from TV to every other conceivable mobile device, more and more advertising will follow. And perhaps the first two days of March Madness, where men everywhere watch games online, will eventually replace the Super Bowl as the ultimate advertising event.

“Marketing Madness” if you will.

If it does, with the personalization made possible for the Internet, a guy goofing off in Rochester will see ads for Genesee, while a guy wasting his boss’s money in Philadelphia will see them for Yuengling.

But some things never change. No doubt we’ll all still have to watch Bud Light commercials that aren’t really funny.

Star Wars title designer in ROC

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danperri

Looking for something to do this weekend? The man who designed credit sequences for Star Wars, Taxi Driver, the Exorcist among other film classics, will be at the Eastman House this Saturday at 8:00 pm. Title Designer Dan Perri, will present a selection of his clips and discuss his movie career. Mention the RAF and you’ll receive a $2 discount at the door. Click here for details.

What do you want?

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I’ll start by saying I’ve seen this approach succeed twice in the past 3 months, so I’m starting to believe that there may be some merit to it.

I’ve found that clearly identifying and making known what you want out of a situation can do nothing but help your cause.

Most situations have 4 critical components:

A) Your current state
B) Your desired state
C) What you are willing to do to get from A to B
D) The person who ultimately has to say yes

We all know what A is. But what often goes unmentioned is B. And if you haven’t made it clear to D what B is, then how can you formulate C?

“I am an intern and I want to be hired.”
“I am an Assistant AE and I want to be an Account Executive.”
“I have a 3.5 GPA and I want to have a 4.0.”

…”and here’s my plan.”

So if you are not where you want to be, consider this approach:

1) Determine B.
2) Put on C on paper and get buy-in from D. Execute the plan and update D frequently on your progress. Keep B top of everybody’s minds.
3) D can’t say no.

So, what’s your plan?

A picture is worth a thousand copywriters

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Over the last couple of days, some very nice things have been written about the copy that is part of the Dundee Ales & Lagers rebranding. It’s been very gratifying…and a little embarrassing.

But here’s some insight into what we, on the Dundee team, knew. Packaging sells beer. No one is buying beer because of a story on the back of the label. Sure, it gives them something to read while they drink…all by themselves. But the cool new look of the Dundee labels and Craft Pack is what stops people in their tracks in the beverage aisle.

And that is the genius work of Paul Hill and Tim Downs, two of the finest I will ever work with.

So I’ll never admit I said this, but save your reading for the cereal box, be shallow, and just choose a Dundee for its good looks.

Meet Gary, Social Media Ninja

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Gary Vaynerchuk owns a wine shop in New Jersey named the Wine Library, and also happens to be a social media expert. Now, I understand that you can’t swing a dead cat on the web these days without hitting a “social media expert”, but Gary’s the real deal, i.e. he uses tools like online video and twitter to actually increase sales, seemingly the point of our efforts.

His experience captures a dilemma facing the advertising industry: For very specific brands in very specific categories, digital technology will replace a big chunk of the “traditional” advertising spend. And with a bit of courage and panache, clients can do it themselves. This quote from an article in the New York Times on Gary’s approach sums it up:

“Last December, seeking to enhance sales, he offered free shipping and promoted it three ways. Direct marketing cost $15,000 and brought in 200 new customers; a billboard cost $7,500 and won 300 new customers; and tweeting the promotion on Twitter attracted 1,800 new customers.”

Sales up, costs down, and he’s humanized the store. I’m the first person to say that for 99% of brands, apps like facebook make little sense. People don’t want to be friends with detergent. But there will be exceptions and there’s more to social media than facebook. Here’s my free advice to agencies: have a point of view, educate your clients, and experiment like crazy under your own roof. Unlike Gary, most will want a partner.

Matt Jones

What’s your pepperoncini?

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Something crosses my mind every time I get a pizza from Papa John’s.

I’m just fascinated by the fact that with every single pizza, they include a pepperoncini pepper in the box.

I know, I know…the marginal cost of this is probably a penny per pizza- but it goes a long way for me as a marketer.

It reminds me why they are different, why they are better. It brings their brand promise to life. It says to me, “You ordered pizza, we delivered more.”

So, it makes me wonder- what little things can you do for clients and customers to add value and remind them why you are different, why you are better. Because it’s the little things like that which make a brand unique and excite people.

It makes me think, what’s my pepperoncini?

What’s yours?